Nonresidents

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Individuals who do not reside in a particular area or jurisdiction
2. Persons living outside a locality who lack the status of resident in that region
3. Those who temporarily or permanently dwell elsewhere and are not inhabitants of a specified place

Etymology: The plural "nonresidents" is simply the plural of "nonresident," so the story is that of the singular noun. "Nonresident" is built from the prefix "non-" and "resident," and the prefix carries the sense of "not." The prefix descends from Old English "nān," meaning "none" or "not one," a word whose ancestry reaches back to the same Proto-Indo-European roots that gave English many of its negatives. In Middle English the form had shortened to "non-," which is why the modern prefix looks so compressed. The base word "resident" comes from Latin "residere," "to sit back or remain behind," from "re-" (back) and "sedere" (to sit). A resident, then, is someone who stays put in a place. Attaching "non-" simply reverses that: a nonresident is someone who does not remain in a particular place, typically one who lives elsewhere. The noun appears in Middle English, and its straightforward construction explains why it has changed little in meaning since.

Synonyms: visitors, guests

Antonyms: residents